Sideshow Remotes: A home audio solution?

Sat, Mar 3, 2007

Remotes, Vista Media Center

One of the most interesting features of Microsoft Vista is Sideshow, specifically remotes designed to work with Sideshow. Most of us still choose to haul out our collection of CDs when we want to get our groove on in the comfort of our own living rooms. Although iPods are incredibly popular, digital music is still mainly confined to computers when it comes to home audio. Lots of options exist for streaming audio through a home stereo system, though most are awkward or very expensive. All of my music has been ripped to my computer. My goal is to be able to pick songs with a remote to be played on a stereo from my music collection. Finding such a remote has proven to be difficult. Think of an iPod as a remote instead of a portable player. That is what I am looking for to control my music.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the remote from Ricavision was its potential as a stereo remote, like Sonos’ cool LCD remote. Could Vista be the answer for migrating digital music to the living room? From the Ricavision website:

The SideShow Remote Control allows direct access & total control of Windows SideShow functions of Windows Vista. The results, it allows you to do following things:

  • Browse music library by album, artist, and genre.
  • Select “My Playlists” or auto playlists.
  • Select radio station by preset name.
  • Preset radio stations.
  • Play Now starts playing selected music.
  • Add to Queue appends all tracks in the selection to the Now Playing list.
ricavision_vista_mce_bluetooth_remote-copy.jpg

A Sideshow remote by itself still requires you to have a computer in the living room (it does eliminate the need for a monitor though). What really is needed is a Media Extender that is primarily for music. A Sideshow remote and a music oriented Media Extender would let you stream music from a computer in your home office to any place in your house or apartment. No one has yet announced a music oriented Extender but I think it is only a matter of time.

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